The new stadium renovations at Gilmer High School are first-class and long overdue. I can still remember having to use the restroom in a nasty portable potty “Port-a-Potty” thing, remember the staph infections kids got from the old field house, and remember when the athletes themselves had a fund-raiser to buy air conditioning in the old weight room. We have needed the stadium renovations for many years, and I believe the improvements were modest and financially responsible.

I believe that the proposed bond issue is also very necessary, and as was the last bond issue proposal which passed, very reasonable in the funding requested. For our community to thrive we obviously need to provide a very quality educational environment for our kids, and I believe that the present Gilmer High School is inadequate to provide the quality our kids need and deserve.

The administration building should have been replaced years ago, and I feel that the restraint Mr. (Rick) Albritton and the GISD school board have shown in the past by not including funding for a new one shows their dedication to our kids first and foremost. The current proposed relocation of it to a remodeled GHS vocational building is very fiscally prudent. The request for building additional classrooms at Bruce Jr. High is also a minimal one and definitely needed.

Mr. Williams wrote an interesting and enlightening article. One could ask if GISD can find 2 million dollars for stadium renovation, there is absolutely NO excuse for science not having proper facilities!!! He says it's the "taxpayer's decision". Wrong Mr. Albritton it is the decision of every registered voter. We no longer live in the age where land owners and the upper echelon.